


The Reunion

by luckybarton



Series: SHIELD Interpolation [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. References, Backstory, Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, Headcanon, Short One Shot, comedic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 14:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13789884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckybarton/pseuds/luckybarton
Summary: Phil visits his old university and makes some heads explode figuratively, for once.





	The Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the same headcanon as [All I Understand Is That I Don't Understand](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13761135).

Phil’s wearing a suit and sunglasses when he arrives at his old Norse Mythology professor’s office, and he almost expects not to be recognized. He takes the sunglasses off before she opens the door.

“Hi,” he says, while her jaw is still hitting the floor. He’s surprised she recognizes him at all—he was only here for one-and-a-bit semesters. Maybe the same way he still recognizes her: they’re both a little worse for wear, but still, on the surface, the same. “You look surprised,” he says, after she doesn’t say anything for a moment too long and he’s starting to think it might be his fault.

“I just don’t get a lot of visitors,” she says.

“Things must be getting interesting for you, what with, well. Asgardians,” he starts, but doesn’t get to finish what he’s saying before she’s talking again.

“Someone from SHIELD had arranged to meet with me. I didn’t realize it’d be you,” she replies. “So that’s what happened?”

“Yeah,” Phil says, “I, uh, transferred to their academy. After some drama. You might remember that.”

He’d had to tell her he wasn’t going to be there for the exam. It had been oddly emotional for the both of them.

“It wasn’t a transfer so much as dropping out and disappearing without a trace,” she says, smiling. “Not altogether unusual, but surprising, coming from you. Are you visiting any friends, other lecturers?”

“No,” he finds himself saying, “I’m just here on business. We have these artifacts, and our last expert was... less than trustworthy,” he says, pulling his briefcase onto the table and unlatching the lid. He opens it fully, revealing a strange, silver-bladed axe. The runes engraved into the handle glow a faint blue.

She raises an eyebrow. “Can I touch it, or will it kill me?”

“I’ve only tried with gloves on,” he says, and hands her a pair. Fitzsimmons had developed them after the Berserker Staff Incident, and they’d come in handy many times since. “All I really need to know is—is this Asgardian, and do you know what it is?”

“It’s not Asgardian, and these aren’t runes,” she says. “In fact, I don’t recognize these at all—but I don’t know who else has vibranium, so I honestly have no idea,” she tells him, genuinely apologetic. “Though, why didn’t you just ask Thor?”

“Thor’s busy,” Phil says, and it’s part of the truth. He thanks her for her time and they have a brief, sanitized chat about what Phil’s done since leaving Ann Arbor, and what’s changed in the field since the Asgardians arrived.

Apparently, there’s a reunion for the year he would have graduated, later tonight. He isn’t being picked up until tomorrow, and it’s on campus, so he waits around in the libraries until it’s time to go. He doesn’t recognize most of the people there—his old roommate is across the room, talking to the ex-student body president, but just about everyone else is a nameless face.

Someone’s giving a speech now, a guy who rings a few bells but not enough of them, welcoming them to the event. The SHIELD academy doesn’t have reunions, mostly because most people end up working with each other at some point anyway, but partially because some of them end up dead.

There are a few jokes that he doesn’t get, a few he does. Most of them tie back to events he can’t remember, or wasn’t at the university for.

But, apparently, one of the defining features of this graduating class is that it had contained the now-infamous That Guy’s Roommate Who Was Disappeared By The FBI And Never Came Back, and he can’t help but laugh at all the different versions of the tale that had sprung up over the years. The speaker calls out for any versions of the story he’s missed—Phil’s favorite is the girl who insists that he was, like,  _ definitely _ an alien—and he swears, later, to Fury, that his legs started moving of their own accord. Because he cannot stop himself.

He walks up, takes the mic. 

“Hey, guys,” he says, “it’s been a while.”

There’s some staring. Some whispering. And then? The room practically explodes.

And the consequences are worth it.


End file.
